Finally time to grow
at Edwin Forrest School

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

The Edwin Forrest School recently began construction of a capital improvement project after a nine-month delay.
Project officials recently updated staff, parents and community members on their plans to build a Primary Education Center at Forrest, at Cottage and Bleigh streets.
"We are so excited we’re going to have a new PEC building," principal Patricia Epps said during the March 13 session. "I want to thank all of our parents for being patient."
The school needs the new building because it lacks space to house Forrest’s roughly 900 kindergarten-to-fifth-grade students under one roof. The school also wants to add sixth, seventh- and eighth-grade classes.
Construction of the 24,000-square-foot center, which is designed to accommodate kindergarten, first- and second-graders, started at the end of February. It originally was set to begin last June and conclude in time for the September 2007 school year. The structure will now be completed in the spring of 2008, project officials said.
Parents were eager for the school district to complete the project this year so that Forrest’s current fifth-graders could continue on to sixth-grade at the school. Instead, this year’s fourth-graders will be the school’s first graduating eighth-grade class in 2011.
Officials said delays in permit approvals from the Philadelphia Water Department stalled the start of construction.
"There’s a new permit process for the Philadelphia Water Department," said project manager Jack Gohde. "We would have liked to have this (community) meeting before we put a shovel in the ground. (But) there was a lot of pressure to get started."
Philadelphia adopted new stormwater-management regulations on Jan. 1, 2006. The guidelines, handed down from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, attempt to implement a more streamlined, environmentally friendly way of treating stormwater.
Architects are now required to design mechanisms to hold stormwater on site before PWD can approve plans for new construction. The school district attributes construction delays at other Northeast schools, including Abraham Lincoln High, which planned to complete their new building by September of 2008, to the new PWD process.
According to water department spokeswoman Laura Copeland, stormwater permits were granted to the Henry W. Lawton and William H. Ziegler elementary schools and Benjamin Rush Middle School, which is converting to a Creative and Performing Arts High School.
The Times confirmed that Ziegler, which first announced plans for a new building more than five years ago, has started construction. Information on the other two schools was not immediately available.
Schools still awaiting permits include the Solis-Cohen Elementary School, whose stormwater plan is under redesign at the request of staff and parents there, while the project at Samuel Fels High School is under review by the city Department of Licenses and Inspections. Lincoln’s stormwater submittal needs to be reworked, and Northeast High School is in the final stages of approval, Copeland said.
At Forrest, project architects Converse Winkler designed an underground detention basin to hold the stormwater.
STV Construction will build the school’s Primary Education Center along Walker Street. It includes 13 classrooms, offices and a multipurpose room for use as a cafeteria and an auditorium. The plan includes 25 new parking spots and an improved playground area.
While project officials plan to add landscaping and lighting improvements, Forrest’s current structure will remain the same.
The new building follows the "little schoolhouse" prototype characterized by brightly colored brickwork and windows of different shapes. Gohde said the fun design appeals to the young age group that the building will house.
"It doesn’t have that whole institutional-like atmosphere when you come in," he said.
The original project budget for Forrest’s Primary Education Center hovered around $6.25 million, but the cost is now estimated at closer to $10 million, according to Gohde.
The community expressed concerns about parking and safety during construction.
Resident Maureen Fitzgerald, who lives across from the school on Bleigh Street, said parents have been parking illegally during dismissal times since construction began.
Because they don’t have access to Walker and Aldine streets during construction, parents must pick up their children on Bleigh Street. Cars have been double- and sometimes triple-parking, with drivers often ignoring the school crossing guard, Fitzgerald said.
"Dismissal is a nightmare. Why isn’t there any police presence? The crossing guard should be getting combat pay," she said.
Epps, the principal, said the police have started ticketing illegally parked cars, and she thinks that parents will get the hint soon.
Fitzgerald also said she’s concerned about security on the construction site, which is surrounded by fencing, at night. As many as 100 workers will be on-site during the 7 a.m.-to-3:30 p.m. construction hours in the summer.
Construction manager John Sullivan said security will monitor the property 24 hours a day.
"The children’s safety is number one," he said.
Attendees at last week’s session also criticized the meeting hosts for not alerting the community or the media to the sparsely attended gathering.
Lane Felton Ghee, an outside public-relations consultant, has been leading community meetings concerning capital projects for the School District of Philadelphia. Ghee, the former campaign manager for Mayor John Street, has a three-year contract with the URS Corp., the project management firm guiding the district’s capital program.
Felton Ghee explained that her firm does not circulate fliers to notify people of meetings. Administrators at Forrest said they sent notices home with students.
Parents who did attend the meeting seemed happy about the start of construction.
"This is good. It’s been a long wait," said Paul Costello, president of Forrest’s Home and School Association.
Costello said he has accepted the fact that his son Shawn, a fifth-grader at Forrest, must switch to another school when he enters sixth grade this fall. Costello also has a son in third grade at Forrest.
"I’m nervous," Shawn said about leaving the only school he has ever attended.
But Costello is still happy that the new building is back on track.
"Is it going to be rough around here for a while? Yes," he said. "But this is going to bring stability to the community." ••
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com